Wandering Where We’ll Be

Dear readers, December 31st

How do I begin to tell you what New Years in Naples is like?

We started off early with a train ride to Paestum, Italy. This was the last day we could use our current Eurail Pass so we decided to visit a somewhat far-away place. Paestum has ruins much like Pompei but with considerable differences.

First of all, it has three almost intact temples. At least one of these temples dates back to 500 B.C.. The most intact of the temples was the Temple of Apollo. There was an error in identifying this temple in the 1700’s so it is actually erroneously named the Temple of Neptune. To get to the point of all this, this temple of Apollo is so well preserved, all someone would have to do to make it complete would be to add a roof. It is almost that easy. The other two temples were not that far behind it in preservation.

Second, a person can actually climb on the ruins of the town. Only the temples were fenced off. This is unlike Pompei where a person was only allowed to go down certain streets or into certain houses. I walked on walls and went up stairs to get better views of things. It was fantastic and very different from the Pompei experience. It was far more hands on.

The train ride back to Naples was uneventful but this was just preparation for what was to come. There was a pasta party that evening at the hostel. Free pasta is always good. There was plenty of wine to go with it. Then we began to hear the beginnings of what was to come that evening. Actually, we began to hear these beginnings a few days earlier but now, it began to crescendo. Bombs are what we heard. In Minnesota, we all know what a firecracker is. Little did Tim and I know, a Naples “firecracker” is an unregulated, homemade thing. Naples is known for these “firecrackers”. Imagine bangs from the tiny firecrackers a Minnesotan knows about, to huge, low sounding thunderbooms from a piece of homemade dynamite that could probably damage a car if put next to it. We heard some of these explosions from across the city. It was unbelievable.

But I am not done with the excitement. We saw a bonfire in the middle of a street. From this bonfire, people lit regular fireworks and sent them into alley skies, not too far from peoples apartments. I am talking about 4th-of-July type fireworks flying by peoples apartments about 10ft away. There were so many fireworks, the city was smoky and smelled of burnt firework. I felt like I was in Iraq during the first days of the war. Don’t worry, moms who read this blog, we never felt we were in any danger.

These “bombs” went off through the whole night…but that wasn’t the only sounds we heard. There was a live band playing in a public square with live dancers. They had the square all rigged with speakers and two jumbotron video screens. The hostel gave Tim and I a bottle of champaign as we and several others went to the square to have fun. Many of the others also got their own bottle of champaign as well.

We were away from residential buildings between midnight and 1a.m. so Tim and I didn’t see anyone throwing out chipped dishes or old washers and dryers or anything out of their windows. Apparently, it is the thing to do on New Years in Naples. “Out with the old, in with the new”, and that kind of thing, is supposed to be represented by throwing things that are no longer useful out the window. I would hate to be in that area of street at that time…so we weren’t.

We watched fireworks…barely…at 2:15am until about 2:30am. It was foggy by this time in the morning so we didn’t actually see much. It was fun to hang out with people from the hostel during this, however.

Since New Years, we have visited the Amalfi coast as well as explored more of the city of Naples. It has been really fun.

Write more later,

Dan

OK, I’ll pick up where Dan left off with Midnight Mass. Yes, St. Peter’s Basilica IS huge, beautiful and very impressive, but the mass left me feeling a bit cold — both literally and figuratively. We were able to get seats, but we were fairly close to the back and one of the back doors was left open during the mass, so there was a cold draft coming into the basilica. Of course, most of the mass was in Italian, with a couple readings in English and some readings and petitions in other languages: German, Spanish, French, Arabic, etc. And, the music was performed by an all-male chorus, accompanied by organ, mostly in a traditional chant style. Plus, the congregation sang only one traditional Christmas carol — Adeste Fidelis — and we were only supposed to join the choir on the “O Come let us adore him” part. Truly, the music was beautiful, and the gospel reading was sung by a male cantor who had a GORGEOUS voice! It was just very different from the Christmas mass that I am accustomed to and I missed THAT mass. Overall, it was a great experience to attend midnight mass at St. Peter’s and I’m glad we had the opportunity to do it.

On our way walking back to the hostel from the basilica, we called my parents’ place, where the rest of my family were celebrating Christmas Eve. They put us on speaker phone and sang “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” for us. It was great to talk to them and hear all of their voices!

Once we got back to the hostel, we slept for a few hours, got up for the free hostel breakfast and, then, went back to sleep for a few more hours. In the afternoon, we went to a grocery store in the main train station and picked up our “Christmas dinner” that we ate at the hostel — a small, roasted chicken, a salad, breaded and deep-fried olives (we’re in Italy, afterall), milk, wine and cream-filled croissants for dessert. It sure wasn’t anything like Christmas dinner at home, but it tasted good, and it was kind of fun.

We looked and looked — along with a young woman named Emily from Wisconsin who was also staying at our hostel — for an English-language movie to see both Christmas evening and the following evening. Our search, unfortunately, led us only to theaters that were no longer open or movies that were dubbed in Italian — oh, well. We had fun walking around and seeing more of Rome at night with our new-found friend from our neighboring state. “HI” to Emily, who is probably back in Austria, where she is currently teaching.

After running around to four different Rome post offices on Wednesday morning trying — unsuccessfully — to track down a card that my sister, Brenda, sent to us via “Poste Restante” (that’s a whole other story), we got on a train destined for Naples and arrived at about 1:30 pm. The energy of Naples is unlike any I’ve seen in any other city! We walked down a very crowded street loaded with sidewalk markets and many, many people to our hostel — about 30 minutes or so. The streets are packed with cars, buses and motor scooters; red lights are somewhat optional for scooters and pedestrians generally don’t have the right-of-way. But, if you need to cross somewhere, you just need to assert yourself, walk with purpose and you’ll be OK. In the evenings, Neapolitans enjoy “strolling” through this seemingly chaotic mess. Somehow, it all seems to work!

That evening we walked to and visited a couple churches — the Cathedral and another one (I don’t remember the name) where nuns from — presumably — a local convent were participating in their daily, evening prayer service, including the rosary. We sat in on it for awhile and, then, made our way slowly back to the hostel, where we had a pasta, bread and wine supper compliments of the hostel — good and fun!

Thursday, we visited Pompei, the city that was buried by the volcano, Mt. Vesuvius, in 79 AD. More on Pompei and Vesuvius later.

Friday we decided not to go anywhere or see any sites; we took care of some errands and just walked around Naples a bit. We’ll be here for 12 nights while we wait to activate our two-month Eurail pass (so it lasts until the first part of March). So, we have plenty of time to see Naples and the surrounding area.

And, today we took a bus and hiked to the crater of Vesuvius, which hasn’t “blown” since 1944. We saw steam rising from several areas of the crater, but there was no bubbling lava or anything like that. In fact, we watched a group of three climbers descend down into the crater. The sky was a bit hazy, but we still had good views of Naples, the sea and the surrounding area. It was fun!

OK, more later.

Tim

Where do I begin?  Trevi Fountain?  Pantheon? Colosseum? St. Peter’s Basilica or Square, the Forum, Palatine Hill, Capital Hill, Monument of Vittorio Emanuele 2nd, Arch of Constantine, Spanish Steps, Area Sacra, National Museum of Rome, Piazza Navona, Campo di Fiori, Egyptian Obelisks, Columns, Palaces, Castles, Fountains, tons of other buildings and ruins, all of these and more I could describe but I just don’t have the time.

Highlights is where I will have to start.  The “big ones” where the Colosseum, the Forum, Palatine Hill and Midnight Mass at St Peter’s Basilica. We went to all of these on the same day!

The Colosseum was first.  We bypassed the large line waiting to get tickets to get in because we had the “Roma Pass”.  We got this at the train station and it was worth it to pass all those people and just go right in.  Some things about the Colosseum that impressed me were…

1. The Colosseum gladitorial floor where the gladiators fought all those years ago.  The floor itself was once wood and has long since eroded with time.  Underneath this wood floor are many hallways and at least 2 floors.  All of these were easily seen.  Just imagine tigers, lions, elephants, gladiators all going through these passages before being unleashed against each other “on stage”, live, for the masses like an ancient thriller, action movie of the past.

2.  The walls of the Colosseum were once over 5 floors high.  Their size of “floor” isn’t like ours.  They were about 20 feet high verses our 8 or 9 or 10 feet.  It was big.  Many of the stairs were eroded a long time ago and you just see traces of them today.  

3.  The actual floor of the Colosseum (the gladiator floor) is about the size of a Hockey rink.  It was not the size of the Football, super size, field in the “Gladiator” movie.  The people in the stands were much closer to the “action” on the field. 

Okay, on to the Forum and Palatine Hill.  Walking under the Tito Arch, you are confronted with Ancient buildings, ruins, pillars, big stones, bumpy roads, temples, and much more.  You can’t take it all in.  The Augustine Basilican ruins are to the right.  HUGE!  The Temple of Saturns steps and columns, The House of the Vestal Virgins with a small pool and a round temple with columns still standing, an ancient roman square, and much more buildings for senators, lawyers, priests, and all the rest of the important people of the time.  Looming over all of this is Palatine Hill.  Caligula’s palace-a.k.a. the palace of Tiberius, is just one of the many palaces on this hill which seem all hooked together with above ground walks and below ground halls, shrines, fountains and what all.  I began to wonder if there was actually a hill here before the Palaces where here or if the hill was nothing but a palace….and the Hill was BIG.  This is, without doubt, the biggest castle ruins I have ever seen!  After all, Palatine Hill was the origin of the word “palace” anyway.  And I can see the reason behind it being the origìn. 

We took a nap after all this so we would be ready and awake for our “pilgrammage” to midnight mass at St Peter’s.  We waited in line to get in from about 7 pm to about 10:30 pm.  We had great talks with the people waiting around us.  We needed a ticket to get in, which we had to get secured in advance in October.  The ticket didn’t cost anything, there is just limited seating in St Peter’s…only 9000 people can get in.  It was huge and awesome just as everyone says it is.  We saw the Pope as he said mass.  We sat way in back and he was just a small, tiny figure in the distance of this huge building.  Even their huge organ sounded somewhat quiet because the sound couldn’t fill the space.  We wonder if they somehow “toned down” the sound but it didn’t seem like it since it was Christmas, one of the biggest Holidays of the year.  Why would they “hold back”?

We eventually got home about 3:30 in the morning.

What a day!

Write more later,

Dan

“Roses are red, Violets are blue. You guys are in Europe, And now the hat is there, too!”

With this little poem, Dan and I are now — again — the proud, temporary owners of a fuzzy, white and green, tassle hat — compliments of our nephew, Tony.  This is a hat that is passed from one person to another in my family each year.  Both Dan and I have received the hat before and have given it to another family member the following Christmas.

In early November my sister, Jackie, emailed us a note asking if there was a way she might be able to send something to us because she would like to send us a Christmas card.  Sure, we had already booked a few days at a guest house in Rothenburg.  She could send it “Poste Restante” or “General Delivery” to the main post office in Rothenburg and we would pick it up there.  Well, the day we arrived in Rothenburg, we found the main post office and went to retrieve our “card.”  There were two packages waiting for us: one from my mom and one from my sister, Jackie.  Walking out of the post office, I looked at the “contents” tag on the one from my sister and it read, “Candy, Hat.”  Why would she be sending us a hat?  But, it only took me a couple seconds to figure out which “hat” was in the box, and I said, “Dan, it’s THE HAT!”  Sure enough, it was.  Thanks, Tony!

Once we are able to, we’ll post photos that we took with us wearing the hat.

Tim

We spent the last three nights in Siena, and had a fun and relaxing time.  Well, it was relaxing AFTER we found the guest house we booked with.  Yes, it took us a while to find this place, too.  We learned that the signs to “Centro” aren’t necessarily the best signs to follow when you’re walking.  It might have been the best route to “Centro” by car, but not by foot!

One highlight of Siena was visiting the Wednesday Morning Markets.  Everything was for sale — from olives to fruit to fashion clothes to cooking utensils — you name it.  We just picked up some large oranges that were probably the best tasting and smelling oranges we have ever had, some excellent olives, a chunk of cheese and some pears.  The guest house where we stayed had a neat little common area, so we had our breakfasts and a couple other simple meals there.

One other highlight was the climb to the top of the city tower, which stands above Il Campo, the old town’s center square — magnificent views of this very hilly city with the jam-packed old town giving way to a rolling, rural countryside.

We just arrived in Rome this afternoon.  We took the Metro to the city center to pick up our tickets to attend Midnight Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, and then walked around town a bit.

More later,

Tim

We had decided to walk to our hotel in Venice once we arrived at the train station.  It is dark outside but well lit.  Putting our hands in our pockets to avoid any hassles with pick-pockets, we set off.  The Rick Steves guide book gives a bare-bones map so we try to make our way with that.  The hotel is in an area fairly close to St Marks Square.  We end up too much to the west end of the island.  We then end up too much toward the center.  We finally get to a square near our hotel.  Where is the bridge leading to this hotel?  Where is the church “on the left”?.  We see a church to the right.  We are lost again!  We went too far into the square.  The church we are looking for is lost among buildings that are just as decorated as it is.  We find it and just over a bridge, there is the hotel!  Yeah!

We got kind of tripped up lost on the way to the restaurant we wanted to go to, not too much tripped up but a little.  We stumbled our way into finding St. Marks Square.  We found our way back to the hotel alright once we ran into a familiar looking back-alley square.  Next day, we only got lost 2 times, finding our way back to the train station to start a boat tour on the Grand Canal, and later that evening on purpose to go where we haven’t gotten lost before – to the eastern area of the island.  It was fun!

There are no cars in Venice.  The streets (if you can call some of those barely-squeeze-a-human-through alleys a street) wind everywhere and dead end at buildings or canals.  The canals are all over the place!  If a person likes, they may step right into the water since they could fall in or takes some steps into it.  These steps leading into the water are all over the place too.  Bridges, of every size and description, abound willy-nilly in a very haphazard way.  The buildings all around are at least 5 stories high so sunshine is optional in those small alleys mentioned previously.  Everything is very old and highly decorative.  One thing both of us liked was the buildings and roads weren’t “done up” for tourists.  Things were old and looked it.  No fresh paint jobs.  No refurbished housing.  If the side of a major tourist attraction had rotted bricks on it and moldy paint..great.  They did make sure old buildings didn’t fall down but that is about it.  They did refurbish the Doges Palace (Dukes palace) a long time ago but it still looks very old.

Wine is cheap here! 1 euro a glass if you get the house red!  Appetizers are to die for!  We made a meal out of them because they are also inexpensive.

We did go into St. Marks Cathedral, the Doges Palace, and the Correr Museum.  All of them were extremely ornate!  The Cathedral is impossible to describe other than MAJOR decor and a “moorish feel”.  The ceilings in the Doges Palace were so highly decorated, they could have been on the walls of any museum or castle.  They weren’t just painted, they were 3-d with “frames” and scrollish stuff in between all the masterpieces.  The Correr was full of statues and historic things from Venice’s past. 

There is really no way for me to describe the architecture of any of the buildings in Venice.  They have to be seen.  We will have photos burned on a disk but as of now, we have yet to find the facilities to be able to put them on our flickr site.  Hopefully soon.

Write more later,

Dan

P.S. Next stop (and we are already here but don’t have the time to write more now) is Siena. 

After the Sound of Music tour, we were dropped off at — and walked through — the Mirabell Gardens, which were also used for filming the Sound of Music.  Then, we crossed the Salzach River and walked through the atmospheric, old St. Peter’s Cemetery, complete with iron-gated tombs that were the basis for the cemetery scene in the S.O.M. movie.  We continued our walk up to the massive fortress and, then, around to Nonnberg Abbey, which was the actual — and film — abbey that Maria was preparing to become a nun.  We continued to walk — yes, we did a lot of walking today (it’s cheap!) — all the way around the mountain the fortress sits on and along the river bluff for a ways.

We left Salzburg the next morning for Vienna, transferring trains in Innsbruck.

We left Rothenburg Friday morning and arrived in Salzburg in the afternoon.  Friday evening we walked across the river to the Old Town, where we walked through yet more Christmas markets and drank more glühwein and ate Nürnburger sausages and sauerkraut on a hard roll.  We toured the Salzburg Cathedral and walked through more of the old town.

 Today we did the almost-obligatory “Sound of Music” tour.  It was expensive, but our guide gave us good information comparing and contrasting the movie with reality as well as historical information surrounding the setting of the movie.  Plus, we got to see areas outside of Salzburg that we otherwise wouldn’t have seen.

I’m going to keep this short, for now.  More later.

 Tim

Hello all!
We are currently in Rothenburg, Germany!
I have got to do a description of the place!
Imagine old German buildings, some as old as the 1300’s – or maybe older, about 5 stories tall, lined with lights, facing a town square filled with Christmas market stalls full of wares. Each stall is lined in evergreen boughs wrapped in more white lights. The smell in the cold air is somewhat cinnamon and baked goods. A faint orange smell is added with the mulled wine served at about every seventh stall. A big Christmas tree lights the center of the square with children playing games in its lowest branches. A Christmas market gate in an alley leads to more areas of stalls with a merry-go-round for children in the middle. Around another X-mas tree, pround owners of well-trained large dogs have the dogs doing tricks such as sit and stay for those standing nearby watching. A couple of other small streets are lined with stalls. One such street is an arcade, a somewhat covered street, and is crammed with people in winter wear, standing close together and drinking mulled wine to keep warm. In other areas of the city, especially on the main streets, small Christmas trees, about 3 feet tall, with lights, stand on lamp stands above or nearby entry doors to shops or peoples houses, or about every 15 feet. The city towers, from about the 14th century or earlier, are lit up as well. It is all an amazing sight.

Tim and I arrived on the 12th and, after a small walk through the town to get to our pension room, and gawking at the old buildings and general “mood” of the city, did some errands. Then it was time to visit the Christmas market. We deliberately waited until it was dark to get the full experience. We have visited Christmas markets in Vienna and Munich but this market was better. Not because it had more stuff, but because it had different stuff. The other markets, while being very cool, seemed to have the same stall every sixth stall. These at this market seemed to be all different. Glass blowers making bulbs, childrens wooden puzzle games, hats scarves and mittens, these are just a few of the different “wares” sold here. It was fun to visit them all. Then we went to the “night-watchmans tour”. A guy, dressed up as a night watchman of old, walked us as well as many others through the town, telling us about its history. He was extremely knowledgeable and extremely funny.

On the 13th, we went to the Crime and Punishment museum. It told us of medieval torture and punishments used on people. Look out, they didn’t put up with anything back then. Women were forced to wear an iron mask of shame (it came in different shapes depending on the crime) for nagging or gossipping. Men weren’t exempt. They had a host of shame masks for not paying their debts and other crimes. Bakers were put in a cage and dunked under water for every half ounce their loaves of bread were under OR OVER the required weight. Drunkards had to walk around the town wearing a barrel with a hole through the bottom of it for their head to go through…sometimes even weights were added to it. If two women were given to fighting with each other, they were both locked into a connected “neck violin”. This wooden thing locks around their necks and their wrists. It would stay on until they resolved their differences. There were many other cruel and painful punishments displayed (not on any real people or anything) but I don’t have the time to describe them all here.

We went to the top of the town hall tower. It was a great place for a view of the whole medieval city. I mean medieval in the sense there are no modern buildings within its walls. We went to St Jakobs church. It has beautiful wooden carvings in there. Possibly the best wooden carvings we have seen yet. We walked part of the wall ramparts at night. It was gorgeous! The view of the old-time roofs, towers and steeples was magnificent! You could imagine yourself to be a medieval night-watchman yourself since there were few cars, no modern sounds and the whole town seems to be asleep. All was quiet. We then went to a restaurant to meet up with a group called the English Conversation Club. We found out about this club meeting from Rick Steves Guide book. It was really fun to talk with the locals. They all spoke English to varying degrees and all seemed to be our age or older.

Today, the 14th, we plan to visit another museum, walk around the walls during the daytime for the countryside views and get various errands done so we can continue on to Salzburg tomorrow.

Write more later,
Dan

Yes, we didn’t plan this visit very well, and ended up missing a visit to Dachau, due it being closed on Mondays, the only full day we had in Munich.  Nevertheless, we made the best of the time we had and had a great time!

We arrived in Munich on Sunday afternoon, checked into our hostel and began walking toward the city center.  As we were walking past the Jesuit Church of St. Michael (I think that’s how it translates to English.), we noticed an informational board on the outside wall and went to check it out.  Let’s see… Can we visit the interior?  Does it cost?  Are there any special events/concerts to attend?  When?  Hmm.. It says something about Vespers on Sunday at 16:00.  What time is it now?  16:00!  Let’s see what’s going on inside.  We walked in, and a special Sunday afternoon service for the second week of Advent was just beginning.  The church was pretty full, but we walked up the side aisle about half way and found a couple seats.  Wow!  The service turned out to be quite a performance as well!  The church’s choir and orchestra — along with organ — performed the movements of John Rutter’s Magnificat throughout the service.  It was very well performed and sounded magnificent!  While the spoken parts of the service were in German, music is — of course — international, and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

Afterwards, we walked through the Christmas Market in the city center’s main square and nearby streets.  The market — as all Christmas markets — consists of many, many shops with all kinds of Christmas ornaments and decorations, crafts, candies, cookies, roasted nuts, Glühwein (mulled wine), brats, sausages, sauerkraut, potatoes, etc. — in short, everything and anything that is German and/or Christmas related.

The next day, we took the train to Füssen, where we walked about an hour to reach Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein Castles.  While the latter is not nearly as old as many of the castles in Germany (built in the late 19th century), it is the famous, “fairy tale” castle that is depicted on endless posters and is the image that many people conjure in their minds when they think of castles.  It was very majestic and beautiful, rising out of the snow-covered, forested, Bavarian alps.

After walking back to Füssen in late afternoon, we took the train back to Munich and went to the Hofbrauhaus beer hall to have supper and — what else — drink beer.  And, we’re not talking small amounts of beer; the normal serving of beer is the “mass bier,” a large, one-liter, glass mug of beer!  And, excellent beer at that — whether it’s helle (lager), weiß (say VICE, wheat), dunkles (dark) or weiß dunkles (an awesome dark wheat beer that I really liked).  Dan and I sat at a couple different tables during the evening, meeting folks from Australia, Korea, Spain and England.  It was a lot of fun!

Yesterday we took the train out of Munich to the medieval town of Rothenburg.  For now, I’ll just say that it is everything that we’ve heard and more — a very picturesque town that is all decorated and lit up for the Christmas season.

Tim